2015-08-27

This Canadian election cycle I did something I've never done before. I canvassed my parents not to vote Conservative.

I come from an immigrant community and their MP is from that community, so aside from a lifelong likelihood of voting Conservative one more time, there is every likelihood that they'll do so again. Only this time, it's blatantly opposed to their own interests and I had to try to get that through their heads.

Worse, it affects all their relatives and friends -- and they'll probably all vote Conservative, too.

I know you're supposed to keep "Religion and Politics" out of family conversations but if there were ever an exception that proves the rule, this may be such a time. If you, or your parents, or your grandparents are immigrants, make sure they understand the potential downside, not just for them, but for all their descendants, if anyone who doesn't promise to repeal those two bills is elected Prime Minister this fall.

2015-08-25

The "good" parts of that bill aren't good enough to balance off all the "bad"
parts of the bill. And in the presence of C-24, it's even worse.

Folks, my citizenship is in danger and maybe yours is, too -- although born in
Canada, my Mother was born elsewhere, so even I, if someone for political
reasons decided I was a terrorist, could be stripped of my citizenship and
deported to the country of her birth. That is a country whose language my
mother didn't even speak in the first two years she lived there (in a minority
community there). And that is a language for which I can do little more than
recite the alphabet, count and say hello in -- and even that much is
considered odd by my friends.

The Liberals are not an option. They supported C-51 and want to do no more
than tinker with it. It needs repeal, full and complete. And C-24 needs to be
recognized for the unconstitutional pandering and hate-mongering that it
represents.

Even the NDP aren't a very good option. Go back and re-listen to that first
leaders' debate and vote for the party whose leader sounded the most sensible,
the least wooden, the least frenetic for the whole debate.

2015-08-16

This week, I got a telephone call from someone claiming to be from NRG -- Nordic Research Group? Before it was done I called out the pollster as running a push poll. Ultimately, it tied into the Conservative attack ad against Justin Trudeau, that "he's just not ready" to be Prime Minister.

Let me denounce this practice in the strongest possible terms: Push-polling is something Richard Nixon started and is common enough in the US. We don't need it here. Oppose this practice strongly when it comes calling to your phone.

Why am I so sure that this poll was put by the Conservatives? After I called out the pollster that this was a push-poll, I said there was one message that I wanted to send to Mr. Harper. Although there wasn't a place on the poll for that, he fell silent and listened carefully. (it was around the last sentence of paragraph 4 in this post of mine)

So I don't "know" but I'd be willing to bet dollars for doughnuts on it.

2015-08-15

His party keeps repeating it about one of his opponents but despite holding
the office for the last 9 years, he's still just not ready. Not to be a leader
of a parliamentary democracy. He's ready to be a dictator. He's ready to be a
manipulator. He's ready to lead a bunch of toads around.

But he's just not ready -- and never has been -- to be our Prime Minister.

2015-08-12

So it's official. Our cipher-like MLA, Douglas Horne, is now running to be our cipher-like Conservative MP. Yes, BC Liberals are best described as "web-footed conservatives" as Social Credit used to be labeled by Alan Fotheringham.